Valkyrie is an easy target because Tom Cruise is such a freak. But in reality, this is not a bad movie. True, it’s not a good movie either. But it is watchable, a little slow perhaps, but watchable. The story is overly simple and told pretty badly in certain sections, but it is basically interesting and somewhat compelling. And they make a decent attempt to actually write some dialog (a little) to propel the story, which I appreciate. The acting is pretty consistent, about on par with the material.

I was not bothered at all by Tom Cruise “mind-melding” with the audience in California English. In fact, Tom Cruise was about the same as he always is in films – not great, not good even, but solid and earnest. Give the guy some credit: he is always earnest as hell in his roles, and is basically a pretty hard-working actor. Tom Cruise off-screen: another story entirely … FREAKAZOID!!!!

This is another one that my wife and I avoided like the plague in 2008, determined to see “something good”, and so we flushed money left and right on pure crap like Slumdog, the Reader, Benjamin Button, etc. If we had just gone to see Valkyrie, we at least would have had a good time, sort-of.